Doug Parizo
TVWBB Member
Hi all,
As a BBQ beginner, I faced my biggest challenge this weekend -- I signed up to serve BRITU ribs for 20 on the island of Nantucket for my mom's birthday party on a Thursday night. Here are the highlights and the challenges -- feedback welcome!
Since I couldn't bring my smoker out to the island, i decided to smoke 'em on the mainland (Cape Cod) ahead of time. Two batches: one on Tuesday night and another on Wednesday night; six slabs in each batch.
After transporting the smoker to the Cape, I got the first bactch fired up a little late on Tuesday night. Also, I realized that I forgot to bring my thermometer. With time running out at about 7PM, I loaded the batch up anyway without knowing the temp, and headed out to K-Mart for a replacement thermometer (ironically, it was right next door to "The Backyard BBQ" which was closed.) The best I could find at K-Mart was a Marth Stewart model and I didn't realize until I got home that it onle went up to 220! Oh well, at lkeast I could tell if the heat was too low!
Anyway, got those ribs off the cooker around 1AM and needed to get to bed so I foiled them and stuck them right in the fridge hot, because I worred about leaving them out all night. Question: was that the right thing to do?
Next night I worked on batch 2, was a little late from work so didn't get started until about 8PM. Out of laziness, I didn't clean the water pan from the night before, I just filled it with more water over the existing grease. Question: any hazard there? Same drill with the hot ribs into the fridge around 2AM.
Thursday AM: we're headed to the ferry. I packed up my duffel bag with the ribs (I noticed that the second batch were still warm even though they spent the night in the fridge!) and assorted bbq supplies. I tried to keep the ribs with me on the Hy-Line ferry because I was worried that my sauce would burst and make a mess, but the security folks made me check the bag. Anyway, we made it to the Island just fine.
Thurday 5PM: I added apple juice to each slab's foil pack and cooked 'em in the oven one more hour. 6PM: Fired up the grill and sauced 'em and grilled em in front of the guests. I have to admit the grill part was mostly for the showmanship. A few guests got the impression that you can grill ribs from raw to ready in 10 minutes!
Anyway, they were delicious and had many compliments. I can report that bbq ribs are very portable and hold up well to multiple heatings/cooling before they are finally served.
Best,
Doug
As a BBQ beginner, I faced my biggest challenge this weekend -- I signed up to serve BRITU ribs for 20 on the island of Nantucket for my mom's birthday party on a Thursday night. Here are the highlights and the challenges -- feedback welcome!
Since I couldn't bring my smoker out to the island, i decided to smoke 'em on the mainland (Cape Cod) ahead of time. Two batches: one on Tuesday night and another on Wednesday night; six slabs in each batch.
After transporting the smoker to the Cape, I got the first bactch fired up a little late on Tuesday night. Also, I realized that I forgot to bring my thermometer. With time running out at about 7PM, I loaded the batch up anyway without knowing the temp, and headed out to K-Mart for a replacement thermometer (ironically, it was right next door to "The Backyard BBQ" which was closed.) The best I could find at K-Mart was a Marth Stewart model and I didn't realize until I got home that it onle went up to 220! Oh well, at lkeast I could tell if the heat was too low!
Anyway, got those ribs off the cooker around 1AM and needed to get to bed so I foiled them and stuck them right in the fridge hot, because I worred about leaving them out all night. Question: was that the right thing to do?
Next night I worked on batch 2, was a little late from work so didn't get started until about 8PM. Out of laziness, I didn't clean the water pan from the night before, I just filled it with more water over the existing grease. Question: any hazard there? Same drill with the hot ribs into the fridge around 2AM.
Thursday AM: we're headed to the ferry. I packed up my duffel bag with the ribs (I noticed that the second batch were still warm even though they spent the night in the fridge!) and assorted bbq supplies. I tried to keep the ribs with me on the Hy-Line ferry because I was worried that my sauce would burst and make a mess, but the security folks made me check the bag. Anyway, we made it to the Island just fine.
Thurday 5PM: I added apple juice to each slab's foil pack and cooked 'em in the oven one more hour. 6PM: Fired up the grill and sauced 'em and grilled em in front of the guests. I have to admit the grill part was mostly for the showmanship. A few guests got the impression that you can grill ribs from raw to ready in 10 minutes!
Anyway, they were delicious and had many compliments. I can report that bbq ribs are very portable and hold up well to multiple heatings/cooling before they are finally served.
Best,
Doug